San Jose de Buenavista, officially the Municipality of San Jose de Buenavista (Kinaray-a: Banwa kang San Jose de Buenavista; Hiligaynon: Banwa sang San Jose de Buenavista; Filipino: Bayan ng San Jose de Buenavista), is a 1st class municipality and capital of the province of Antique, Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a population of 65,140 people, making it the most populous municipality in the province of Antique.[3] It is often called simply San Jose.
The municipality hosted the 2017 Palarong Pambansa.[5]
The Spaniards arrived in Antique in 1581. With them came Augustinian friars who Christianized the inhabitants. Its original name was Tubigon, being still a part of the municipality of Hamtic.
In 1733, it was renamed San José and in 1790 it acquired its municipality through land grants issued by Philippine Governor General Félix Berenguer de Marquina. Later, it became a parish with its first parish priest, Father Manuel Ibáñez.
Some two hundred years ago, the site now occupied by San José de Buenavista was a dense jungle and a favorite landing place for pirates to raid the area.
In 1802, by popular demand, San José de Buenavista became the capital of the province of Antique and Agustín Sumandi was appointed as its first Gobernadorcillo, a sort of local governor during the Spanish Colonial Era.
On November 24, 1898, San Jose de Buenavista was captured by Philippine Revolutionary Expeditionary Forces led by Gen. Leandro Fullon from Cavite during the Battle of Antique after a 2-day struggle. The rest of the Antique province under Spanish authority surrendered to the revolutionary forces.
In 1954, by the virtue of Executive Order No. 3 of the President of the Philippines, the southern portion of San Jose de Buenavista was formed into an independent municipality under the name of Hamtic. The boundary was described to be "From a point on the south bank of the mouth of Malandog River running northeasterly in a straight imaginary line to a point on the northeast side of the San Jose-Hamtic provincial road ten meters west of the intersection of this northeast side of said road with the northwest side of the Sibalom-Piapi-Malandog provincial road; thence following approximately the same direction in an imaginary line that is parallel to, and ten meters distant from the said Sibalom-Piapi-Malandog provincial road until it touches the present boundary between San Jose and Sibalom."[6]
The Evelio B. Javier Airport, the only airport serving commercial flights in the province of Antique, is located in San Jose.
In the 19th Congress of the Philippines, house bills were filed by various representatives which seeks San Jose de Buenavista including other capital towns of provinces with no current component cities, independent component cities or highly urbanized cities to automatically convert into cities.[7][8][9]
San Jose de Buenavista is 97 kilometres (60 mi) from Iloilo City, 182 kilometres (113 mi) from Kalibo, and 213 kilometres (132 mi) from Roxas City.
According to the Philippine Statistics Authority, the municipality has a land area of 48.56 square kilometres (18.75 sq mi) [10] constituting 1.78% of the 2,729.17-square-kilometre- (1,053.74 sq mi) total area of Antique.
San Jose de Buenavista is politically subdivided into 28 barangays.[12] Each barangay consists of puroks and some have sitios.
In the 2020 census, San Jose de Buenavista had a population of 65,140.[3] The population density was 1,300 inhabitants per square kilometre (3,400/sq mi).
Kinaray-a is the spoken language of the municipality. Kinaray-a came from the word "iraya", which refers to a group of people residing in the mountain areas of the province. Hiligaynon is spoken as a second language of the municipality.
San Jose is the Episcopal see of the Roman Catholic Diocese of San Jose de Antique.
Poverty incidence of San Jose de Buenavista
Since 1971, San Jose de Buenavista celebrates the Binirayan Festival during the final week of December. This festival involves a theatrical presentation commemorating founding of the first Malayan settlement or barangay in the country. San Jose celebrates its religious fiesta on May 1 to honor its patron saint, Saint Joseph the Worker.
Evelio Javier Freedom Park is located in front of the Antique Provincial Capitol building in San Jose de Buenavista. It is named for the late Governor Evelio Javier, who was shot by an unknown assassin on February 11, 1986. A marker in the park denotes the exact place of his death.
Old and new buildings dot the town: the Old Capitol Building; Evelio B. Javier Memorabilia (New Capitol); Azurin Mansion; La Granja and Binirayan Hills; and the San Pedro Old Church.
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